didnt know that, thanks for clarifying.. I do not see any meaningfull reason for that, as any accepted question (own or not) can be wrong or bad, so the only effect is that i dont see the "correct" answer as first... but i am sure this has beed discused and the decision is supported
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ZavaelJun 26 '14 at 8:55

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@Zavael What about this: the Op asks a question, you answer it correctly. He downvotes you for no reason, and you point that out to him. Afterwards he posts exactly the same answer as yours and accepts its self answer. (real example happened to me) Normally answers that are basically copy/pasted are deleted since they only add noise.
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BakuriuJun 26 '14 at 12:59

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@Bakuriu - yes I thought about this, but he can do that even now, if his answer remains at the position where it is... what will change that his answer will not be TOP-ed? and if something like this happens, the its likely that after pointing it out the community downwotes his answer so it will be at the top with dozen of minuses :) - public punishment
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ZavaelJun 26 '14 at 13:17

@Zavael We want the good answers to go on top. People often don't read past the first answer, even though it may be worse than other answers.
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BakuriuJun 26 '14 at 13:30

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@Zavael It would be really meta if you copied this answer yourself and accepted it.
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Señor OJun 26 '14 at 20:47

@Bakuriu ok, but there exists some presumption of innocence. You expect from the beginning that the users own answer is copied or bad or in other way not worth to be TOP-ed? :)
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ZavaelJun 27 '14 at 6:46

@SeñorO i dont understand the term "to be really meta":(
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ZavaelJun 27 '14 at 6:48

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@Zavael If the OP answer is good it will be upvoted anyway and go on top (see all the awesome self-answered question by top users for example). So I really don't see any downside and this mechanism has the upside of handling the cases were the OP accepts the "wrong" answer.
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BakuriuJun 27 '14 at 7:20

@Bakuriu With this reasoning we don't need any acceptance priority in sorting of solutions at all since the good answers will be upvoted anyway.
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TrilarionJun 28 '14 at 19:06

@Bakariu I agree completely, we want good answers on top, and votes are meant to sort out good answers from less good answers. So why do we even put any accepted answer on top? Reasoning is exactly the same for self- and non-self-accepted answers. If it's good, it'll reach the top anyway.
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KPMJun 30 '14 at 16:20

+1 Aint it a bitch when you answer a question only to find someone else said exactly the same thing two seconds before you :)
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Carl SmithJun 26 '14 at 13:07

in this question at the time of writing there are multiple 0-voted answers, with one of them accepted. Since all answers are votewise equal, wouldn't it make sense for the accepted one be put on top by default? (I have sorting by votes). I can understand it wouldn't be on top if there are other answers that have more votes, but given equal vote count, I don't understand the reasoning of treating it as equal.
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eisJan 21 at 8:06